RealitySells

A Transparent Success Story: The NBA’s Miami Heat

They went from heroes to goats in less than two years, but the Miami Heat chose to respond to their fans in a bold, unique way.  And it’s working.

The Miami Heat were the World Champions of the NBA in 2006.  They were the toast of the town, and the NBA’s #1 market in total season ticket sales.  But in 2007, the Heat were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, and now (3/7/08) they’ve dropped to the worst record in the NBA. 

From first to worst in such a short period of time is hard to take, especially in a fickle town like Miami.  To make matters worse, it was time to renew the current season ticket holders for another year.  What could the Heat do to restore the faith of their #1 fans?

They took a play out of our book, Reality Sells: they chose to be totally Transparent.

They created an unprecedented event for their season ticket holders; an exclusive Town Hall Meeting, held at the Heat’s arena, featuring the team’s Managing General Partner (Micky Arison), the President of Business Operations (Eric Woolworth), and the team’s President and Head Coach (Pat Riley).  Only current Season Ticket holders were invited to attend this closed-door session, and attendees could ask any question they wanted of the team’s top three executives.  To make the event even more exclusive, no members of the media were allowed to attend. 

*Come and ask us anything about the team and our plans for the future,* they said.  *We want you to know just what we’re going to do, and we want you to feel like an insider.*

The three executives were asked a variety of very blunt questions about the team’s performance, their plans for improvement, and reasons why they should renew their seats for another year.  All three were very open and honest about their plans, and Coach Riley even admitted to making several mistakes in the past year that partly contributed to the current state of the team. 

After the 2-hour event, all the fans’ questions were answered, the group was encouraged by what they heard, and the event was a real success for the franchise.  Season ticket renewals improved as a result, and the fans are feeling better about the future of their team, because those in charge weren’t afraid to answer the tough questions in person. 

It takes guts to be Transparent.  But if you want to be trusted by today’s fickle consumers, being Authentic means not being afraid to reveal who you are on the inside.